Deep Purple – Reincarnation (Tarantura TCDDP-2-1,2)

  Reincarnation (Tarantura TCDDP-2-1,2)  

Budokan Dai-Hall Tokyo Japan Tuesday May 14, 1985  

Disc 1 (46:59) Toccata And Fugue BWV 565 (Bach), Highway Star, Nobody’s Home, Strange Kind Of Woman, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desire, Strange Kind Of Woman, Blues, A Gypsies Kiss, Perfect Strangers, Under The Gun, Lazy, Drum Solo, Lazy  

Disc 2 (66:50) MC, Child In Time, Knockin’ At Your Back Door, Difficult To Cure, Keyboard Solo, Space Truckin’, Woman From Tokyo, Black Night, Smoke On The Water, SE  

After the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple reunited to release the Perfect Strangers they embarked on a tour that started in November 1984 and finished in October of 1985 and included seven dates in Japan, a long time stronghold of the band. Of the seven dates four were at the Budokan in Tokyo, this new release from Tarantura features the second of those dates. This recording, credited to Cock Suck Blues is of excellent quality, clear and detailed all instruments are well balanced and come through clearly with no crowd interference to speak of, the atmosphere perfectly captured.

This concert has a previous silver release, The Ricochet Darker Than Blue-033/034 but I do not own that title and do not know if it this tapers master or another’s work. The first thing that hits you, apart from the excellent recording is the band is playing extremely well, they plow through Highway Star with great vigor, during Blackmore’s solo Gillan spars vocally with his leads and the crowd cheers enthusiastically. A nice version Nobody’s Home a track from the new album, the first of five tracks to be played, follows and is followed by Ian’s opening comments.

Funnily enough he addresses the crowd with Eye Thank Yew many times during the show, reminding me of Robert Plant”s lines during the European tour of 1980. He introduces Strange Kind Of woman as a song “dedicated to a scabrous vole”.During the middle section famous for vocal and guitar improvisation Blackmore gets into Jesus Christ Superstar that elicits laughter from Gillan and wild cheers from the audience. A short blues interlude begins a trio of new tracks starting with A Gypsies Kiss. There is obvious enthusiasm for the new material as the band plays at almost a martial tempo with some nice guitar work from Blackmore.

Perfect Strangers gets a loud ovation and is very similar to the recorded version as is the next song Under The Gun. Some doodling around first by Blackmore then by Lord leads into a well received Lazy, played at a very fast tempo, Ritchie’s leads are very fluent and as Ian matches notes the crowd cheers wildly. Ian Paice plays a great solo and Gillan does some great harmonica work. “A song written in a hall half the size of this stage” is the introduction for a well received version of the classic Child in Time, the crowd claps in unison at the opening lyrics.

The rhythm section keep a fast time as Blackmore flies during the middle solo section and you can feel the tension as Lord keeps up with Blackmore at the fast pace ending of the solo section then the band just stops. The echo effect Gillian uses during his walling also leads to the dramatic feel of the piece. The band starts the solo section of the show with a take on Rainbow’s Difficult To Cure that leads directly into Jon Lords solo section. touching on synthesizer muzak to honkey tonk piano duet with Piace and even gets into a little Also Sprach Zarathustra  that leads into the opening notes of Space Truckin’.

While the lyrics may sound a little dated the bands performance is anything but nostalgia, the band plays as though they have been apart for twelve weeks versus twelve years. Jon Lord plays a great solo and leads the band into a interlude that sounds like Mandrake Root, surprisingly Blackmore’s solo is very short consisting of just some riffs and solos over the rhythm section before heading back into Space Truckin’.

Some loud screams by Gillian ends the main set to rapturous applause and some sound fluctuations, possibly a tape flip is evident and then the band is back with Woman From Tokyo as the crowd again goes ape shit even singing along to the chorus. Black night and the grand finale of Smoke on the Water follow and the crowd is there with the band the entire way clapping and cheering ” Hey Hey Hey” with the songs signature riff. They get the crowd to sing “Smoke on the Water” and Gillan interrupts to thank the crowd for their support.

The packaging is what we have come to expect, high gloss gatefold sleeve adorned with group shots on the front and back and individual pictures in the center. There is also a picture of the master tape, a TDK AD 120 cassette.The CD’s are adorned with pictures of Gillan and Blackmore on CD 1 and Ian Paice on CD 2 and are housed in plain white envelopes, a very nice package indeed that should have great appeal among collectors. With the release of snipets of Led Zeppelin’s Japanese 1971 tour from Mr Peach we can only hope that perhaps in Tarantura vast archives there are more hidden jems from Deep Purple’s Japanese tours that will be released in the future.